Good morning, friends. It’s your Space Coast correspondent James Sparvero writing to you about more tension between the industry leader in commercial spaceflight and the regulatory agency it needs for a very important go for launch.
SpaceX has voiced its distaste before with waiting on the Federal Aviation Administration to grant licenses for previous launch attempts of the largest, most powerful flying machine ever built. So, no surprise that after a decision to pump the brakes on Starship’s fifth launch attempt in Texas, Elon Musk’s camp isn’t too pleased.
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It’s been three months since the last time we saw a launch achieve new milestones in development, like reentry and splashdown. And as I’ve followed SpaceX on social media, including an employee I know here at the Cape who gets sent to Texas for these flights, it seems like SpaceX has been ready to fly Starship again for weeks.
Now, however, we’re learning Starship won’t be able to make more critical progress toward being a human lander for the Artemis III mission until at least November.
“A final license determination for Starship Flight 5 is not expected before late November 2024,” an FAA statement reads.
So what’s the wait this time?
For starters, the FAA says it needs more time to take a closer look at the rocket configuration and mission profile for flight 5. Also, there appears to be new environmental concerns in south Texas. I know some of you have concerns like this for when Starship eventually launches here but for the time being, here’s what the FAA said about the launch at hand.
“In addition, SpaceX submitted new information in mid-August detailing how the environmental impact of Flight 5 will cover a larger area than previously reviewed. This requires the FAA to consult with other agencies.”
SpaceX hasn’t minced words in its unfavorable response to the wait. With a headline reading, “Starships are meant to fly,” it’s calling the delay “superfluous” and “unreasonable.”
“Unfortunately, we continue to be stuck in a reality where it takes longer to do the government paperwork to license a rocket launch than it does to design and build the actual hardware,” SpaceX wrote. “This should never happen and directly threatens America’s position as the leader in space.”
The fifth flight has another bold, new objective planned and it could be the most amazing thing we’ve seen a SpaceX rocket do yet - landing the Super Heavy booster back on the launch pad when what SpaceX calls the “chopsticks” of the launch tower catches the booster.
Considering Starship has a lot more objectives to achieve before it’s even close to ready for landing astronauts on the moon, which by the way is supposed to happen in just two years whether that’s realistic now or not, I sure hope the relationship between SpaceX and the FAA can start to look more amicable. The Artemis program, after all, needs the federal government’s support each step of the way especially with funding from Congress.
📧 Have any topics you’d like to discuss? Send me an email here.
👋 Here’s a little bit more about me.
Little did I know when watching Apollo 13 in the third grade that 20 years later, I was destined for a thrilling career as your Space Coast multimedia journalist.
Chemistry and biology weren’t so interesting to me in high school science, but I loved my Earth and Space class (Thanks, Mr. Lang).
Then in 2016, I traded Capitol correspondent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for space correspondent. I’m proud that my first live report at News 6 happened to be the first time SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on a barge. What seems so routine now was a really big deal that day in our newsroom!
From there, I’ve covered the Commercial Crew program and the return of human spaceflight to Kennedy Space Center (Demo-2 launched on my 33rd birthday!)
Now, as our coverage looks forward to missions to the moon and Mars, I often tell others I have the best job in local news. Because after all I’ve seen so far, I think I would be bored working somewhere else. I even bought a house near the Cape with a great view to the north so I never miss a launch even when I’m not working.
After eight years on the beat, though, I still consider myself a young space reporter and I always look forward to learning something new with every assignment.
Have a great launch into the rest of your week!
